


Time shenanigans

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-03
Updated: 2012-11-18
Packaged: 2017-11-17 16:51:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/553768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave is from an alternate dystopian future where the Felt control who can travel though time under the pretenses that they are doing good for the rest of the world. He goes back in time to try to set things right. Shenanigans ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> My english teacher is making us do nanowrimo this year, and of course that means I'm writing AU fanfiction. I have barely any idea of what the plot is going to be as of right now, so pretty much anything could happen. I'm not doing any editing here until the whole thing is done at the end of November, so there are gonna be lots of mistakes and changes and ret-cons.  
> My word count goal is 30,000 at a minimum, but hopefully more than that.  
> Also since this is for school, there can't exactly be anything too NSFW and I'll have to tone down the cussing.

Your name is Dave Strider, and you are falling. Fast, faster than you’ve ever moved before, probably. You start to wonder if it’s possible to do something at a certain speed if you’re in a place without time. You realize this train of thought is probably not the best use of your time (there you go using temporally bound words. It’s a hard habit to break, you guess).  
Yes, this whole train of thought is a waste of your precious time. You really should be concerned about something else. Not dying, to be specific. Although really your thoughts about death recently could be summed up as “meh.” It seems pointless to worry about it now. Ever since your brother went missing (presumed dead) you had been alone. You have nothing to loose at this point. Which was sort of how you got into this whole situation.  
Suddenly that rather depressing train of thought was ended, because you ran face first into something hard and solid.  
You cringe into the sudden bright light, welcome after the dark, timeless tunnel you were just in. Unfortunately, it’s already slipping away. As darkness closes in on all sides, you see someone standing above you. Its a kid, probably around your age. His thick dark hair flopped messily over his deep blue eyes. His hair seemed to stick up everywhere, like he had just stuck his head out of the window of the car. He had thick glasses with dark rims, although he obviously wasn’t wearing them for their hipster fashion credit. He was wearing a blue hoodie with the logo of a vintage (totally state of the art and modern, you remind yourself) video game. This kid looked like the biggest geek he had ever seen.  
The last thing you hear before the blackness encroaching on your vision is him fussing over you, strangely not freaking out nearly as much as the average person would about someone just randomly appeared right in front of him.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first real chapter! Enjoy.

Your name is John Egbert, and the wind is at your fingertips. You can feel the breeze pulsating around you, flowing like the blood in your veins. You push and pull, manipulating the winds around you with ease. And you can fly. All around you the skies are blue, full of clouds with images of the past. You and your sisters first birthday, when your Nana was still alive. Your 13th birthday, now three years ago, where you had gotten your favorite video-game. The day your sister Jade got her dog.  
You look to the ground and see a checkerboard pattern of black and white, and thousands of people as small as ants wandering below you. None of them are looking at the clouds, which seems strange to you. They are so very, very gorgeous.  
Then you notice something strange. The clouds are starting to show things that haven’t happened. You can see yourself, just standing around when a crack appears, and a boy around your age with blonde hair, dark shades that cover his eyes and a strange red outfit seems to fall through it. You see dozens of snapshots of you and the boy together, laughing and talking like the best of friends. In some, you can see your sister and another girl beside you.  
Then everything shifts again. The clouds turn dark. The people wandering the ground below you go still and silent. The wind blows harder, becoming more and more difficult to control until you are no longer in control at all. The clouds before you grow darker and darker. Suddenly something becomes clear through the haze of swirling winds and darkness so thick it is almost tangible. A pair of flashing eyes appear in the clouds. You hear the worst noise you have ever heard. A great roaring, piercing growling sound. It sends shivers down your spine and makes the hairs on your neck stand up. Your ears ring with the sound.  
You feel sick with fear. Then all at once the wind drops you. You are falling to the ground when you hear another strange noise, like an air raid siren.  
Wait.  
Thats you’re alarm clock. You wake up. It was just a dream. You are lying in your usually warm and comfortable bed. After a dream like that, its not so pleasant. You’re drenched in a cold sweat, shivering. Apparently in your sleep you had kicked all your blankets onto the floor. This is not a good start to the morning.  
You can hear your father preparing breakfast downstairs. If you don’t get up soon you’re going to be late for school. You really wouldn’t care, but your dad would get upset and you really want to avoid that. Your father loves you so much, and is so proud of you. You know because he tells you this literally every day. Normally more than once. He leaves notes everywhere for you to find. Last week you found one underneath your dresser while looking for a lost sock.

“Dear John  
You have finally gained enough strength to lift your dresser over your head. You have grown so much, and I am so proud of you”

Later that day he threw a cake at your face. He really enjoys pranks.  
You really need to get a move on if you don’t want to be late for school. You hurry through your morning routine in a haze, still thinking about your dream. It had been so strange. Although your memory was fading fast, the horrible noise you had heard stayed with you, echoing in your ears.  
You shovel down the breakfast your father made for you; eggs, bacon, and a large stack of pancakes. Sometimes you feel that your father is overcompensating for being your only parent. He and your mother got a divorce almost 15 years ago. Honestly it doesn’t really matter to you. You didn’t really know the woman. Since you have a twin sister, your parents decided to split you up. Your father stayed in Washington with you, while your mother took your sister to SOMEWHERE. You still keep in contact with her, mostly through the internet. You haven’t actually seen her in person since the divorce. Usually thats actually a good thing. You don’t have any of the typical sibling problems, since you don’t see each other enough to get on their nerves. Time zones make it hard sometimes though.  
You really wish you could talk to her right now to talk about your dream, it seems like the kind of thing she would be interested in. She often talks to you about weird dreams that she has. You settle for messaging her on your favorite chat program, pesterchum. 

\-- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG]! --  
EB: jade.  
EB: something weird happened, message me when you wake up.

You close your laptop and head out to the car. Your dad still drives you to school every day.  
As you make your way outside you can see what a beautiful spring day it is. You only have about 10 days of school left, although these last few days are some of the most important. You have to keep your nose to the grindstone if you want to pass any of your exams. You should have no problem passing AP Biology or Art, but you still have a lot of work to do in order to get an A in Geometry and English. You’re really ready to be out of school and done with sophomore year. Not that the year has been bad, but at this point you’re just done with working and school. Which might be problematic if you want to pass junior and senior year. The summer break should hopefully refresh your brain a bit.  
The wind blowing through the trees (and your hair) normally comforts you, but today it’s just a reminder of your strange dream.  
On your way to school you make pleasant conversation with your father. Mostly about how classes are going and what tests you have and when the exams are. He really does care about your education. You think he can probably tell that something is the matter from the way he looks at you as he says his goodbyes when you get out of the car.  
“Goodbye John. I am so proud of you” He says you get out of the car.  
“Yeah Dad, thanks” You say before shutting the door and walking to class.  
You’re at school a little early, right before the big rush of people arrive. You figure the amount of effort it takes to get up a few minutes early isn’t too bad a price to pay so that you can walk the halls without being crushed by all the people. Your school is pretty old, and it isn’t really built for this many students. You make your way to Biology and prepare for the day. In class you sit in the corner of the room, away from other people. Your classmates file in, two or three at a time. They are all laughing and talking to each other about what they did over the weekend. You read over your notes for class, and check over your homework. You don’t have anyone to talk to, all your really good friends are online. You never exactly mastered social interactions with people. Things were really bad for you in middle school, where people actually cared about who was “popular” but now almost everybody has relaxed about that. You still don’t have any super close friends, but you could find someone to talk to if you had to. Honestly you prefer not having any close friends in classes, most of the time you don’t really want to talk to anyone.  
Your inner thoughts are cut off when the teacher begins class. Your teacher calls for everyone to pass up homework, which you had finished in class yesterday. After that you moved on in the lesson.  
“So last week we began discussing genetics” she begins, “But we only got to the basics. Today we’re going to start working with more complex Punnett Squares. The way these work is pretty easy. Not that much harder than the simple ones. First you...”  
You begin to space out. It’s not like you need to pay attention in biology, science has always come naturally to you. You let your mind wander far away from class. You really can’t stop thinking about that dream. The details are fuzzy now, but the image of those glowing eyes is still haunting you, and you expect it to continue to do so for several days. You only can remember clearly two parts; those flashing and flickering eyes that came with the noise, still ringing in your ears, and seeing the boy that fell from nothing.  
It was so strange, you know you’d never seen anyone like that boy before. The image of him almost felt burned onto the inside of your eyes. You couldn’t describe the feeling exactly, but you almost felt like you knew you would see him sometime soon. But no, that sounds ridiculous. It was only a dream.  
Wasn't it?  
Suddenly your teacher interrupts your daydreams.  
“John, pay attention. I’m asking you a question.”  
“I’m sorry ma’am, it won’t happen again. What was the question?”  
The rest of the day continues similarly.  
You manage to finish most of your homework in class, besides geometry. But really, screw geometry. You walk home, because its nice outside and the buses are terrible. You pull out your phone and check your messages on Pesterchum. You are glad to see the little green circle that signifies Jade is finally online.  
\--gardenGnostic [GG] has come online! --  
\-- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG]! --  
EB: jaaaaaaaade.  
GG: Oh hey John!  
GG: Sorry I wasn’t able to talk to you for a while, I was asleep.  
GG: Now please, explain your cryptic messages from this morning, I am dying to find out what happened!  
EB: well uh,  
EB: actually it sounds kind of stupid now when i try to explain.  
GG: John.  
GG: Your message has been bothering me all day, you can’t just tease me like that!!  
GG: If you don’t tell me right now, I’ll be so pissed!!  
EB: okay fine, jeez!  
EB: i just had this really weird dream.  
EB: there, now you know and we can move on to talking about something less dumb.  
GG: What? No, you have to tell me what happened!!!  
EB: arg fine.  
EB: so i was just like, flying around, i guess? and there were all these weird clouds that had images of like  
EB: snapshots of the past?  
EB: i told you this was dumb.  
GG: No, no keep going! That actually sounds like a dream I had a little while ago, except I was walking instead of flying.  
EB: what really? thats weird.  
EB: anyway then it got strange. suddenly the clouds started showing things that hadn’t happened yet  
EB: stuff that can’t happen  
EB: like there was just this kid, who randomly fell out of a crack in the sky, sort of...  
GG: Hmm.  
GG: Yeah that part doesn’t sound like the dream that I had.  
EB: hold on because it gets even weirder.  
GG: Of course it does.  
EB: shoosh. do you want me to tell you or not?  
GG: Bluh bluh okay fine I’ll be quiet.  
EB: ok  
EB: so then like  
EB: everything went dark. really dark. and all the clouds started to merge into one cloud and the pictures in them warped together.  
EB: and then they started to show these huge eyes. they were glowing and flashing and stuff. i guess that might be one of those things that’s only scary in the dream? but it was really terrifying at the time.  
EB: and then it made this horrible awful noise. i can’t even begin to describe it.  
EB: and then i woke up.  
EB: so uh  
EB: any thoughts on what that could mean?  
GG: Yup!  
GG: Its obvious that you’ve entirely gone crazy.  
EB: what?  
GG: I’ll call Dad and tell him to schedule you a lobotomy.  
GG: I know it will be hard but it the only way you can live.  
EB: jaaaaaaaade  
EB: i’m being serious!  
GG: Yeah I know!  
GG: Seriously a dork!!!  
GG: I mean, maybe you will meet someone like the kid you saw.  
GG: Or maybe its all a huge metaphor from your subconscious.  
GG: We just don’t know.  
GG: I mean, I have weird dreams all the time, but they usually don’t come true.  
GG: So stop worrying!  
EB: wait what?  
EB: usually they don’t come true?  
EB: so sometimes they do?  
GG: Oh shoot!  
GG: I forgot to feed Bec! I’ve got to go.  
GG: I’ll talk to you later John! :D  
EB: wait no don’t go!  
\--gardenGnostic [GG] is offline! --  
EB: dammit.

At this point you’ve almost reached your house. Only a few blocks until you can lie down at home and relax.  
The wind is blowing around you, sweeping your hair into even more of a mess. Your father used to joke that you had Harry Potter hair. It’s always sticking up in a halo around your head, no matter what you do with it.  
You’re musing on the possibility that your wild hair may someday grow and take over the world when something shifts.  
You can’t pinpoint exactly what it is at first. And then you feel it again. Its like the whole world is rippling around you. It isn’t an earthquake. You’ve been in earthquakes before and they were nothing like this. It isn’t just the ground thats moving underneath you. Its everything. The very houses around you seem to bend. Its flowing out of a patch of sky around 30 feet away in ripples. Everything is flowing and bending and wow this is the weirdest feeling. Suddenly the movement at the epicenter increases. It seems to flow in two directions opposite each other, pulling away. The space it leaves behind is strange. It isn’t black or white or light or any other color at all. It’s just... nothing.  
Then you start to see something falling. Something red.  
Jade was right. You are going crazy and you really will need a lobotomy because there is absolutely no way this is happening. Its completely impossible.  
Except apparently, it isn’t. As soon as whoever it is has cleared the crack and fallen all the way into reality, the waves stop and the crack closes. The falling person lands on the ground hard. You’re kind of starting to worry he died, but then you see him move.  
It’s pretty amazing that he didn’t die, or even pass out from that. When you get closer you can see he’s wearing some kind of thick red armor. That explains how he’s uninjured.  
You’re trying really hard not to freak out about this. You’re trying to stay calm. You’re trying not to think about the fact that part of your dream had come true. Most of all you’re trying not to think of the implications of that. Trying so hard. But unfortunately for you, not succeeding in the slightest. If this part of the dream came true, and not in a stupid “metaphor in your self conscious” way, what does that say about the part with the huge demonic eyes and horrible sound? You’d prefer not to think of that.  
You run over to help the fallen person. Upon closer inspection you can see that he looks the same age as you do. His long blonde hair flops over his eyes. His dark tinted shades have been nocked askew from the fall, and you can see his eyes, cringing in the sudden light of the real world. His eyes surprise you too, just like everything else about him. You can understand why he was wearing dark glasses now. His eyes are bright red, which is made even more strange by the fact that he obviously isn’t the traditional all-pale white albino. His hair is a dark shade of strawberry blonde, and his skin is a tanned honey color dotted with freckles across his nose. It seems like everything about him breaks the rules of how things normally are.  
You dimly notice that he even has freckles on his ears. Wow, that’s actually really cute. But you shouldn’t be focusing on that at all right now. You quickly steer your train of though somewhere else (because seriously, what the hell even was that).  
He’s wearing an unusual outfit. All his clothing seems to be some shade of red. He has a t-shirt over a brighter red long sleeve shirt. Some kind of padded armor? He’s wearing track pants with a stripe running down the side. The only things that aren’t red are his shoes, which appear to be black converse, and his glasses.  
You’re sitting right next to him now. You would feel weird about staring at him like this, but he’s doing the same to you so you figure its okay. Plus, he just fell out of a crack in the sky, you figure you have full license to be a little weird.  
He’s looking at you like he’s trying to say something, and you lean in closer. Predictably, he immediately passes out.  
You sigh, and pick him up. Something tells you you shouldn’t call and ambulance for him. You can’t put it into words, but you have a feeling that isn’t what he needs right now. Your house is only a few yards away now, and your father won’t be home for a few hours. When he gets home you’ll... figure something to tell him, you suppose.  
As you carry him home, you notice something else strange. No one has come outside to investigate what happened. Surely everyone else must have felt the ripples that preceded this unusual boy’s arrival. Someone must have been looking outside when the giant crack appeared. If it weren’t for the fact that the guy you were currently carrying had appeared, you’d be checking yourself into a mental hospital right now. You doubt you could have dreamt up something as strange as he is.  
Probably.


	3. Chapter 2

Carrying him to your house is a bit of a challenge, since you’re not exactly a total bodybuilder. He’s passed out, and you don’t want to wake him up. After a fall like that, he has to be injured somehow. You remember when you had fallen about five feet into a dry creek bed you had been exploring with your dad when you were about eight. You had passed out for a little while, and when you came back to consciousness all you really wanted was to pass out again.   
You get him into your house and lie him down on your couch, taking his glasses off and setting them on the side table. You wish he would open his eyes so you could see if they really were bright red.   
You know a little bit of first aid, so you try to check his injuries. Strangely (although you have to admit, not entirely unexpectedly) he doesn’t appear to have any lasting injuries. You’re not an expert, but he doesn’t look like he has any major broken bones typical of a fall like that.   
You take a step back, and the implications of the past few minutes start to sink in. Someone had just fallen out of a mysterious crack in the universe without any visible injury, which as far as you can tell no one else saw or felt, all of which you had dreamt about previously. And for some reason, you felt the need to take whoever it was into your home? What the hell are you even supposed to do in a situation like this?   
Your panicked thoughts are interrupted when you can see him stirring.   
He cringes, and reaches up to his eyes, trying to push his shades up until he notices they aren’t there. His eyes are, in fact, a brilliant shade of red. It has to be colored contacts, you think. He looks around, and jumps a little when he sees you.   
“Who the hell are you?” He asks, his tone somewhere between angry and surprised.   
“I should be asking you that!” You say defensively. “You’re the guy who just fell out of a huge crack in the sky!”  
“You saw that?” He seems way too incredulous about this whole situation. How could you NOT have noticed?  
“Uh, of course I did? Everything went all shaky and crazy for like 30 seconds, I probably would have felt it if I was in a coma!”  
“That...” He says, his southern drawl becoming more pronounced “Is really fuckin weird”  
“Weird? You wanna talk about weird?” You aren’t entirely sure why you’re getting so upset over this, but it feels justified. “The entire earth just started shaking and the sky cracked open and you just fell out of it, but apparently took on no injuries at all no big deal!”  
“Yeah” he says as he sits up and places his shades back over his eyes. You’re a little disappointed that he covered them up again. “But you’re the one who decided that you needed to take me back to your house.”  
You stare at each other for a second, in a kind of stalemate.   
“Whats your name, kid” he asks.   
“Don’t call me ‘kid’, I’m probably the same age as you!” You realize as you ask that its probably going to turn out that he’s secretly 900 years old or something.   
“Alright then. Whats your name, person who is probably around the same age as me?” He asks.   
“John Egbert. Now can you please explain what the hell is going on”  
“Alright then, John Egbert” He says, “Here’s what I need you to do. Just go upstairs and forget this ever happened.”  
You glare at him. “There is no WAY I’m forgetting about this, dude. What, do I not even get to know your name? I told you mine, how’s that fair?”  
“Dave Strider. Now we’re even. I’m just gonna ollie outie” ‘Ollie outie’??? This guy keeps getting weirder. He gets up and starts to walk out.   
“Dave Strider?”  
“The one and only”  
You stare at him for another second. “You seriously expect me to believe that your mother named you ‘Dave Strider’? That sounds like a name some overly imaginative ten year old on a sugar high would use.”  
“Well” He sighs “My mother didn’t name me nothin’, because I don’t have a mother. Way to remind me of my tragic motherless past, Egbert. Gonna have to go cry to myself in the corner now. You’ll be reading the headlines tomorrow and find out I jumped off a cliff. ‘Young man commits suicide after overly curious stranger delves into his dark and tragic past, last words unknown because no one could understand his incoherent sobbing’ will be the headline of every major newspaper. You will be stigmatized as the cruel, tactless man you are. I hope my tragic and untimely death teaches you a lesson Egbert. You’ll learn the importance of shutting the hell up. Years later you’ll write your memoirs, which will be turned into an academy award winning film. Every character will be played by Nicholas Cage or Matthew Mcconaughey. M. Night Shyamalan will direct. It will be modern classic which can bring a flood of tears to the eyes of everyone who sees it” He says this entire monologue without taking a breath. You are duly impressed.  
“Wow”  
“What.”  
“That was a lot of words you just said.”  
“You want me to go on, Egbert? Because I can”  
“Oh dear god no!” This is a lie. Hearing him go on and on like that was surprisingly entertaining. But you’d much prefer him talking about what just happened. “Look. You need to tell me what’s going on here. If you don’t tell me I’m going to start investigating on my own.”  
He inhales through his teeth, and then sighs.   
“You’re not going to give this up, are you?”  
“Afraid not, sorry.”  
He’s biting his lip and looking you up and down, sizing you up.   
“Yeah I highly doubt you’re sorry. Although really you should be. You’re causing all hells of inconveniences for me. Forcing me to break practically every rule in the book, which I obviously care SO much about. You can tell by the way that I’m not interacting with locals or allowing myself to be seen by anyone at all. Alright fine, Egbert. You want me to talk, I’ll talk. It’s gonna take a while though.”   
“Of course it will” you snicker, already used to his verbose and meandering word choice.   
“Shut up, you want me to spill or not?”  
“Alright fine” you say, as you make an overly dramatic mime of zipping your lips.  
“Oh wait, before you throw away the key you should no I have one condition you should know about” He says, and you resist the urge to rip your hair out. “You must do a dangerous task to bring something to me. Without it I am not long for this world”  
At this point you’re pretty skeptical of anything he has to say.   
“What is it you need, Strider” You make an effort to put emphasis on his name as you speak.   
“I need you...” He pauses long enough to make it clear he’s obviously fucking around with you “To bring me some apple juice. Not piss in an apple juice bottle, Little Monsters style. Actual. AJ. Juice made from apples. Surely you know the stuff.”  
You give him your most dramatic sigh as you move to the kitchen.


	4. Chapter 3

4 years in the past, but some (not many) in the future.  
Your name is Dave Strider once again. Now that we have more time, and you aren’t falling through a crack in space-time, we should take this opportunity to find out a little more about you.   
As previously mentioned (previously for the reader, for you this conversation lies years away) you don’t have a mother. Instead, you live with your brother, Dirk. Although the two of you fight nearly constantly, you do admire him a lot. The man has ninja like skills and is an untouchable master of irony. He could replace the meat in your sandwich before it even occurred to you what you were chewing. He is one of the only people to ever master the ancient fighting style of “puppet-jutsu”. You have seen him nearly kill a man with a single marionette. On top of that, he has incredible skill with the katana, which you have always envied. You like to pretend that you don’t he’s cool, but you aren’t very good at it. It has been almost exactly a week since you last saw your bro. No cause to worry though. He has gone missing for longer than this before and still made it back in time.   
As you examine your room to distract yourself from worrying about him, you find many items lying around that give some clue as to your interests.   
You have some totally sick nasty mixing turntables and mixing gear sitting on your desk. Your state of the art computer is playing obscure music into your wireless headphones. No one but you has ever heard of this band. That is why you love them. Your walls are covered with photographs you’ve taken and developed in the amateur darkroom you set up in your basement. Most of them are ironic self portraits you took in the bathroom mirror, but a few are serious pictures of the other things in your room.  
There are neat and tidy piles of preserved dead animals on all your shelves. Your most prized piece, which you can normally stare at for hours gives you no comfort today. It is a near perfect condition taxidermy crow, mounted so it looks like it is just about to take flight. It probably died of some strange disease or mutation. Those are always your favorite specimens. Your bro got it for you as a birthday present, which means at the moment all it does is remind you of how worried you are about him.   
You check your watch. He has two hours to get back. Two hours until everything goes to hell. You remember his instructions he had given you so many years ago, the first time he had left overnight. The instructions had become sort of a mantra for you in recent years.  
“Alright lil bro” He had said, while ruffling your hair “I’m going to leave for a while. I’ve got some stuff to take care of and I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be back for a few days. Its going to be tough but I know you can take care of yourself. Now I have two rules for you. One, don’t ask what I’m doing or where I’m going because I can’t tell you. And two, if I’m EVER gone for more then a week, I need you to pack up all your stuff and get ready to leave. I have an envelope with more instructions on it, but don’t open it until you need it. Trust me, I’ll know if you do.”  
You had tried to protest, but he got up and left before you had time to.   
That first time he had gone, it was only for 3 days, and when he came back he had a little extra cash. You had started to ask where the money came from, but one look from him silenced you. He had promised that he would only be gone a few days a month from then on. You honestly hadn’t minded that much. You always took care of yourself, lived off ramen for a while and waited for him to come back. You liked being by yourself sometimes, and his absence meant you could do whatever you wanted. Not that you ever did anything crazy, you didn’t have any friends in real life to party with, and he had strict rules about leaving the home unattended that you didn’t dare break. In the end most of the time he was gone you carried on business as usual.  
As time continued, he began to leave more and more frequently, and for longer and longer times. He had never been gone over a week. There had been a few times where he had very nearly not made it, especially recently. The time had come down to the minute once, almost 6 months ago. You had the letter in your hand and were prepared to open it when he had come busting through the window, looking beat to hell with a crazed look in his eyes. You had tried to ask what he had been doing again but you got no real response. You had been hoping that he could stay with you for a while after that, but the next day he was preparing to leave again. He’s practically gone more than he is with you now. You still don’t know what he’s doing when he leaves, but you can tell whatever it is isn’t going well. He always seems so stressed and worried. In the past year his hair has started to become streaked with grey.  
Now it looks like you may finally get to look inside the letter. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t just dying to open it up and see what’s inside. However you knew better than to disobey Bro and see what it said.   
Although now it looks like you may have to open the letter and follow his instructions. You’ve had a bag packed and ready to go since last night, when you couldn’t sleep and needed something to do. You’re making final rounds about the house, checking if there is anything you may have forgotten. You wish Bro could tell you where you were going, so you knew what to pack. Being prepared is important, but so is not being super conspicuous and weighed down by bags. You end up using a large book bag you had stuffed full of clothes, food, water, and weaponry. Your trusty sword is a familiar weight in your hand. You have spent thousands of hours training with this sword, fighting against your bro. You began to realize a long time ago that your childhood wasn’t exactly normal. You were constantly trained for fighting practically since you could hold a sword or throw a punch. You’ve been cut up and injured so many times you hardly notice it anymore.   
You glance over at the box you keep the letter in. You look at the clock. He still has a few minutes. You begin pacing nervously around your apartment, checking every possible entrance. You don’t seem him anywhere.   
1 minute left. He’s really cutting it fine this time.   
The letter is in your hand. You’re staring at the clock.  
30 seconds. He’s never taken this long before.  
15 seconds. You feel sick to your stomach.  
5\. 4. 3. 2. 1.  
You stare at the clock in disbelief. You’ve prepared for this moment over the years, imagined how it would play out in your head. You wait for a minute or two in silence. You know Bro would have wanted you to go as soon as that week was up, but to be honest you don’t really care what he wants right now. You almost can’t bring yourself to open the letter and read what is inside.  
Almost.


	5. Chapter 4

You and Dave are sitting across from each other at your kitchen table. Its a very surreal experience. He has a juice-box in his hand. He refuses to explain until he has finished it. The silence between the two of you is becoming more and more awkward.   
Or at least it is for you. Dave seems pretty content to sit in a strangers house drinking their apple juice and refusing to explain any of what is going on.  
“Okay” He eventually says. “I’m ready now. So what do you want me to explain?”  
“Well lets start with the basics” you reply “What the hell was that giant crack in the sky? Why didn’t anyone notice it? And how did you manage not to die there from that fall?”  
“Seems fair enough. Now I should warn you you're probably not going to believe the answers to any of these questions no matter what I say. Its like I’m the kid in the movies who tries to tell his parents theres a monster in his closet. ‘Yeah right jr. There’s no monster now go back to bed.’ You know just once I’d like to see dad crap his pants when a kid says theres a vampire in his closet. ‘OH SHIT EVERYONE IN THE MINIVAN’. Be the fricken father of the year right there.”   
You cut him off before he goes on even more.  
“Okay okay I get it, I will try to believe everything you say even if it sounds ridiculous. To be honest I was already ready to believe everything you said. I have seen some ridiculous shit today. I am prepared to be the good dad who listens to his kid and gets everybody into the minivan. Can you just get to the point maybe a little faster?”  
“Alright jeez, Egbert. I will give you the abridged version without my ever so charming tangents. You want me to be fast, I will be fast. Fast and danger are both my middle names.” You can tell that he’s going to keep stalling until you stop interrupting him, so you just kind of stare at him until he continues.   
“Ok so heres the super abridged version. I’m from four hundred thirteen years in the future.” He glances at you and pauses, judging your reaction. You are staring blankly. That was not at all what you were expecting. To be fair, you don’t know what you WERE expecting. Just... Not that.   
“Okay...” You say. “Lets just continue under the assumption that what you just said wasn’t entirely crazy and move on.”  
“Wow you really believed me that easy? That’s pretty damn astounding.” He says with a grin. “You do seem like the type who believes everything. But rest assured. I swear I will not abuse your immense gullibility.”  
You roll your eyes dramatically.   
“But anyways moving on with my super fast and danger explanation of what happened. That huge crack in the sky was basically how I got into your time. Like if time is all separated then you gotta bust your way through to other places. Now normally you don’t fall ass first though those suckers but there have been some... extenuating circumstances with this particular trip through space time. As for why you could see it, I’m not too sure. Normally folks can’t feel all the distortions that result from people screwing around with the fabric of the universe, surprisingly. Takes a pretty experienced traveler to pick up on shit like that. Although the typical traveler is also trying not to be noticed by anyone. Don’t wanna scare the locals none. You’re supposed to try to open a gate as far away from anyone as is possible, in a dark alley or some other abandoned lonely place. I didn’t because YOLO.”  
“Dude.” You say with an incredulous grin on your face. “I can not believe you just said that. Please tell me YOLO isn’t still around four hundred years in the future.”  
“Oh I wish. No, I’m just a connoisseur of early internet culture. On a purely ironic level, clearly.” He laughs.  
“Now where was I? Oh yeah. As for why I ain’t dead from that lovely little fall you witnessed, its because of this baby.” He lifts up his t-shirt to reveal the red long sleeve undershirt he has on. He knocks on it with his fist. “This sucker is made of some kind of fanciful material from way in the future.”  
“Woah, I always forget that time travel words forwards and back. You gotta tell me about the future dude. Did you go to the year three thousand? Has not much changed, but they live underwater?” You ask with a grin.  
“Hell yes. And your great great great grand daughter is doing fine.” It’s hard to tell when he has a real smile with those dark shades covering his eyes, but he seems to be genuinely amused. “No but seriously I haven’t actually been to the future. For me anyway. Obviously been to the future for you, I was born there.”  
You give him a quizzical look.  
“I don’t like spoilers” he says simply.  
“Fair enough.” You say. “But how do you feel about giving some out to me? Obviously the world has changed a lot if you’ve got time travel and shit. You gotta tell me whats up in the year 2425!”  
He opens his mouth to start talking but then closes it, staring outside your window. You look outside. Your dad is home.   
“Shit. Ok dude just tell him you’re a new student or something okay? Try not to be too weird at him” You give Dave a pleading look while trying to clear up any messes you may have made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god I'm going to jump off a cliff writing is hard. Sorry this chapter sucks like ten different kinds of ass, I was kind of rushing to make my goal.


	6. Chapter 5

You tear into the envelope and pull the page out. His messily scrawled handwriting covers the page.

Dear Dave,  
If you’re opening this, it means that I’ve probably got myself killed. I’m not gonna   
sugar coat it for you, because I’m sorry but today is the day you aren’t a kid anymore. I need you to get out of there as fast as possible. I was able to make some protection for you, but now that I’m gone it won’t last much longer.   
You should already have your bags packed. When you opened this envelope an automated message was sent to some people who are gonna help you out. You just need to go outside. Take your stuff with you. Don’t talk to anyone, don’t look at anyone, don’t be noticed. Go down to the bar at the corner of our street. They aren’t gonna wan’t to let you in, but just tell them you need to talk to Roxy. Wait there, and she’ll find you. I’ve given her instructions on what to do next.   
-Bro.

You stare incredulously at the letter for several minutes, until you realize you’re wasting precious time. You look around the apartment, nostalgia so strong it almost overrides your panic. If you’re honest with yourself, you’re still waiting for Bro to come back, to mess up your hair and call you stupid for believing he was gone. You can feel tears welling up in your eyes. You can’t do this. You can’t cry. Striders don’t cry. They stay strong and do what needs doing, no matter what.   
Apparently that rule is no longer firm, you can feel tears spilling over and running down your face. It’s taking all your self control not to start sobbing.   
You pull yourself together. You need to follow the letter’s instructions and get the hell out of here.   
On a whim, you grab a pair of your Bro’s hilariously ironic shades from the table and put them over your eyes. This way, no one will see you’ve been crying. Nothing says conspicuous like a crying child, and you need to not be noticed.   
You pull on your backpack, stuff the letter in your pocket, and head out.   
You haven’t actually been outside in quite some time. After all, everything you could possibly need was indoors on the computer. Plus, your Bro’s paranoia had rubbed off on you. Outside you feel like a sitting duck for any number of horrible things.   
You make your way downstairs from your penthouse apartment. You grab a map of the city from the main entrance, even though you already know exactly the place your bro wants you to go.   
You step outside the apartment lobby, and make your way into the streets.   
Immediately your senses go into overload.   
There are thousands of people wandering around, making their way to their own homes, or going out shopping or doing any number of things. The buildings around you are at least two hundred stories high, full of dark nooks and crannies where who knows what could be hiding. A precursory glance reveals at least twenty five new security cameras have been placed around since the last time you went out. The space is reasonably large, but with all the people jostling around, and the hight of the buildings, your claustrophobia sets in. At this point all you really want is to run back home and curl up under your blankets forever. The presence of so many people itches at your skin, and you feel like you could puke. You want to scratch your skin off and unravel into nothingness. You can barely breath, you’re drowning in your own skin.   
“Sup, Agoraphobia” you mutter to yourself, “been a while since I’ve seen you”  
You’re visibly shaking at this point, and hyperventilating like crazy. People passing by are starting to stare, which of course helps nothing. This is pretty much your worst nightmare.  
You’re biting down on the inside of your mouth so hard you can taste blood, but you can’t stop. You’re breathing like you just ran a marathon, you can’t get enough air. You stumble into a dark alleyway, away from people. You can’t stay here. You need to brave the crowds and go outside. You need to get to the bar, but you don’t think you can make it. Apparently your phobias have gotten much worse over the last few years. Which sort of figures, you haven’t forced yourself to be outside in a long time.   
Still, you need to try.   
You sit by yourself in the alley for a while, until your breathing returns to normal. Your hands are still shaking, but as you pull yourself up to a standing position you figure you’re going to be able to make it. You look at your watch and are by surprised by how much time has passed. It’s been almost half an hour. You should have made it to the bar in half this time. There’s no way your bro would have accounted for you taking this long. He had always counted on you to follow orders and do what needed doing, and usually you did.   
Then all of a sudden you can feel the hairs on your neck stand up. Someone else is in the alley with you. You don’t recognize who they are, you can hardly see them at all. The only thing you can see is their eyes, which look like they’re glowing.   
“Who are you?” You ask, trying to sound confident. The falter in your voice betrays you. Whoever it is lets out a chuckle.   
“Don’t you worry Dave, I’m here to take care of you. You were going to try to run away, weren’t you? Its a good thing we found you then.” They’re talking in a way that is supposed to sound comforting, you guess, but its definitely not working. You try to stand up, to run out of the alley and away, far away from here. But you can’t. Your legs are shaking and trembling again. Your stomach is tied up in knots, and then those knots are tied into knots. At this point you’re drenched in a cold sweat.   
They laugh again. Its sugary sweet in a horrible, forced way. You’re torn. You need to get out of the alleyway and away for whoever this terrifying person is. But at the same time, you can’t run back into the street. Your mind is blank with fear. Your chest hurts like someone is stabbing it. You’re heaving, trying to take deep breaths but there isn’t enough air. You feel like you’re going to die.   
“Thats it” The person says “just stay right there. There’s no reason to run, after all. We’ll take good care of you”  
You need to run you need to run you need to run get out out out out out no nononono you can’t breath you can’t think nothing is working you’re going to die you’re going to throw up.  
You’re trying to crawl away when you feel something on you shoulders. Tears are streaming down your face. You’re coughing and gasping for breath. Its still too dark and you can’t see where you’re going. The light of the street outside seems to be miles away.   
“Now now, Dave, don’t try to run. It’s all okay. We’ll take care of you” Their hand is on your shoulder and they’re pulling you back. You can’t fight them off. Your limbs are heavy and your body isn’t under your control. They chuckle at your weak struggles. Then you feel something prick your arm. He gave you some kind of shot!  
“Calm down, Dave. Go to sleep” They say with a wicked spark in their glowing eyes.   
You can feel everything slipping away. You try to hold on. You can’t do it, everything is slipping away.   
Just as you loose all consciousness, you feel them put something over your head.


	7. Chapter 6

Your dad looks a little surprised when you say that Dave is a new transfer student from school, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Mostly he just seems happy you’ve made some friends in real life. He doesn’t even seem phased by Dave’s unusual all red outfit.  
Dave says that he’s just moved from Texas and that you and him have several classes together.   
“AP biology and art.” You say when your father asks what they are. Your father asks him some questions about how he likes the classes so far, and he manages to BS his way through the conversation fairly well.   
“I was meaning to ask you, Dad is it okay if he stays for dinner with us?” you question.   
Your dad looks so happy that you finally have real friends to invite to dinner it’s almost embarrassing.   
“Of course, son.” He says.   
“Oh no I don’t want to be any trouble for you.” Dave says, dripping with southern manners and charm.  
“Oh, its nothing.” Your dad replies “We always make enough food to feed a small army anyway, I’m sure there will be enough for you.” He obviously likes Dave already, and you can see why. The guy knows how to act the part of southern gentleman.   
“Alright well, we’re just gonna go hang out in my room upstairs.” you say as you drag Dave along with you.   
Your dad laughs.  
“You having conversations too private for your old man to hear?” He jokes.  
“Yup!” you respond brightly. You and your dad have a pretty friendly relationship, a lot better than the ones your friends describe to you. You guess you just never saw the purpose in being mean to him. He tries so hard to be a good father, and for the most part you think he has done alright.   
You move upstairs and down the hall to your room, thankful you had decided to clean it recently. You pull Dave in and sit down in your chair. He looks around, taking in his surroundings.   
You have posters on your walls that reflect your variety of interests. You have posters from your favorite movies, like Con Air and Ghostbusters II. When you were younger you used to love these movies un-ironically, but you like to think that since then you have grown up a bit. Nowadays you will enjoy watching these films for a blast of nostalgia, and because some of them have that magical “so bad it’s good” quality. Not many though. But you just can’t bring yourself to tear down the posters. You also have more recent posters up from some of your favorite webcomics, Problem Sleuth and Ruby-quest, as well as a few from your favorite animes. You even have a poster from one of Jade’s old favorite TV shows “Squiddles”. You keep that one in a place where you can’t really see it, the squiddles kind of freak you out for some reason. There is a stack of trick playing cards and other staples for pranking and slight of hand magic tricks on your desk. You also have the latest issue of Game Bro: Reviews for real Game Bros Bro! sitting under your keyboard.   
Dave looks over your posters with raised eyebrows, you can sense his judgment.   
“I don’t actually really like any of these movies anymore” You explain.   
“Uh huh, sure I believe that.” He says with a smirk. “Like I can’t tell you have awful taste in moves. Just look at you. Dorky ass smile and glasses, theres no way you could have any sort of taste. I bet you’re just dying to get gay married to Nicolas Cage or some shit. I can see it in your eyes. You have an aura of dweebery that leeks out onto everything around you. Just look at this” He gesticulates toward the stuffed rabbit from Con-Air which you may or may not still sleep with.   
“I’ve had that since I was a little kid dude, its not that weird.” You respond. You definitely aren’t embarrassed at all.   
“Yeah it wouldn’t be weird if you had that thing on display somewhere to prove your devotion to Nic Cage and all his movies. But you probably sleep with the damn thing and nibble its ear and stuff.” He notices the certificate of authenticity sitting proudly on your shelf. “Oh my god you’re kidding me. This is the actual gross bunny in the movie so that means nick cage actually grubbed it up with his clownish no talent fingers and you sleep with it? Can’t believe you, dude. Fricken ridiculous.”  
“Wait how do you still know who Nic Cage is 413 years in the future?” You ask, surprised.   
“I told you I’m a connoisseur of early internet culture.” He says, running his hand through his hair.  
“Right..” You say. “Well can we get back to you explaining about the future and stuff? We aren’t going to be able to talk during dinner, with my dad there.”  
“Right you wanted spoilers, didn’t you. Well here’s basically how it all went down.” He begins.   
“No one is really sure when time travel got invented on account of it being time travel and all. Definitely at least 111 years in the future from now. Problem is making time machines causes a ton of temporal distortion, even more than traveling in time does. So the whole concept of measuring time when the first one was created is sort of a moot point.   
“Anyway time traveling becomes more and more common and someone decides there needs to be somebody to regulate it. This government group gets created to moderate and limit the hell out of the usage of traveling. All is good for a couple hundred years, but then things start to go downhill. Government corruption gets worse and worse and eventually this mob group called The Felt takes over everything outright. They put their boss, Lord English in charge and surprisingly, for most people things start to get better. The Felt at least provide a bit of stability to people. They make time travel illegal to everybody besides their own agents who have to train in their academies for years.   
“For those agents, things ain’t so great. They mostly pick up homeless kids and poor people, the ones who no one really cares about. They make it seem like they’re helping out the helpless or whatever but its really just that they need disposable people. No one gives a shit if that homeless orphan disappears, or goes insane or whatever. Meanwhile the rest of society is doing pretty damn well. No ones gotta worry about the poor, The Felt takes care of it. Its pretty clear they have been going back in time and setting up situations so they’re more favorable for them. Because only their agents have the training and equipment to travel no one can do anything about it. You wanna start a revolution? They’ll make it so your parents never meet, problem solved.”  
You become aware that you’re staring. Your mouth has fallen open comically.   
Then you come to your senses. There is no way this is true.   
“There is no way that is true. I’m sorry but theres no way. ” you say.   
He looks strangely... disappointed?  
“Look, you have to believe me.” He pleads. You give him a sympathetic look, he has to understand this is insane.   
“What if I can prove it?” He asks. “Because I can. Right now.”  
You glance at him suspiciously.   
“Could you get us back before my dad notices us? That is, could you if this worked, which I know it won’t” You ask carefully.   
“I’m a time traveler, Egbert, I could get you back five minutes ago. Now come over here” He orders.  
You walk over to him. He grabs your hand, and you feel sparks of energy. You can’t tell if it’s just him holding your hand thats causing it, or if he’s already started the process and it’s just some weird side effect. You really hope it’s the latter. You’re almost sick with nervousness, although you’re not sure why. You can’t bring yourself to believe this.   
“Wait wait wait” You say “Don’t I need armor or something? I mean, obviously I don’t nothing is going to happen here at all because you’re just some crazy person but if it was to work wouldn’t I need a snazzy armor shirt like you have?”   
He laughs.   
“I told you, my rather dangerous entry ain’t exactly typical. It’ll just be like... walking through the door between train cars. But just to be safe, don’t let go of my hand. And don’t try to run off. ”  
You can feel him judging you for being so nervous. You’re pretty pissed at yourself by this point.   
His grip on your hand tightens as he pulls out an old hand held tape player. You have to hold back a laugh. He said he was from the future, but that thing definitely from the past.   
Your train of thought is interrupted when he presses a button on the side of the player and a door opens. It’s strange, it doesn’t look like a door, it doesn’t look like anything at all. But you can sense that something is there, and it feels like a door.   
“Oh I forgot to mention, you might wanna close your eyes for this part its a bit intense” he says with a wicked grin.   
“Wait what” you say and then your breath is taken away. He opens the door pulls you through it. What you see is almost indescribable.   
You can feel his hand pulling you along, and you’re incredibly glad for it. Without him there, you know you would be lost. You can’t actually see or hear anything, but if seems like some other strange senses have been activated. You can feel the motion of Dave in front of you, and sense him. You don’t know how to describe it, but he seems to radiate warmth and security. Your stomach clenches when is you notice you can detect other things moving in the void. Other things that don’t feel nearly as friendly as Dave’s presence. You wan’t to open your mouth to ask him how long it’s going to take but you can’t do it. You have a feeling he couldn’t hear you anyway. Little bubbles of reality are popping and growing around you. They sparkle in the nothingness. You can feel little snippets of what’s happening in them. Dave pulls you onwards, obviously he knows where he’s going.   
Suddenly one of the other presences comes closer. You can feel it now, all sharp and full of malice. You can tell Dave feels it too. He pulls you away from it firmly, you can feel his grip tighten. You aren’t really walking, or moving at any speed at all. You can just feel yourself traveling. You feel yourself moving faster, and the thing increases speed too. Its chasing you. You don’t know what it is, or what it wants. All you know is that you need to get away.   
Then suddenly he comes to what must be the right bubble. He jumps through it, yanking you behind him. You fall over instantly, your legs feel like jelly. Your vision is going dark around the edges.  
“So, hows that for proof?” He asks. His face is blurred, but you can see the stupid grin on his face.  
You’d answer, but you can’t control the laughter bursting from you.  
“What?” Dave asks, a bit surprised.   
“Very funny Dave hahahahah!”  
“Dude it isn’t a joke. You’re turning into the dad that gets killed by monsters cos he’s too stupid to believe his kid that there’s a monster under his bed”   
“NICE JOKE! Great joke there Dave! TOP OF THE LINE PRANK!” You’re aware that your laughter is becoming kind of scary but you don’t particularly care anymore.  
“This is actually good” He says “Laughter is probably the best way to avoid being especially melodramatic about the revelation.”  
“yes. YES! LET'S KEEP THIS JOKE GOING. BECAUSE IT IS SUCH A GOOD ONE! HA HA HA HA OH MY HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA oh my god.”  
You pass out.


End file.
